OhForAGreavsie

But how do you know this? And if what you imply is correct, how do you know why? You don't know anything so you cannot know that, if faced with the same facts, you would not have made the same decisions the club is making. So many people are inventing what they think the club has done and then blaming them for it. As for the not for sale comment. It might be true of course, but it is also standard negotiating talk.

Napoli now said to be demanding €60m for the player. This shows the futility of the attitude expressed by some here; the just pay whatever they ask approach. They never do ask, unless there's a clause or they are keen to off load the player. What they do is make not for sale at any price noises and refuse whatever offer comes along until either they believe they've emptied the well or they look out of the window and see the moon lighting the world on transfer deadline day. Napoli have almost certainly not said that they want €60m. Almost certainly they have said at least €60m. If a club bids that sum today it will be rejected. That's the way the game is played. Crazy thing is we all know this yet some keep posting nonsensical comments screaming for the club to just pay up. Don't try to live the fantasy people, deal with the reality.

Sad to say I am one of those doubters. It's been a bad season and a half, not a bad season. He was great for the remainder of the season when he returned. He had many more good performances than bad ones in the first half of the title season but since that season reached its midway point Nemanja has produced more poor displays than good ones. Many more.

This is dangerously optimistic talk. As I commented a couple of months ago, we're in a tough spot. We face the most competitive transfer market in history, at a moment when our club is less attractive to potential recruits than it has been at any time since Roman's arrival and yet we need a major injection of talent. Like all of us, I have my hopes but this is inevitably going to be a bumpy ride.

Got my fingers crossed for you.

What's pathetic is those Evertonians who are doing the bragging, not that I give too hoots about them, and your post, which coming from a fellow Blue, I care a great deal more about. Before there can be any point to the bragging, or your post, it would have to be confirmed both that the player has signed for Everton, and that we had really been interested in him. Personally I share your belief that we are chasing Koulibaly, I certainly hope that we are, but I'll delay my judgement until I see what happens. I think you should too. Judging the club based on a collection of rumours is premature. Man City fans might just as well describe their club as pathetic because some meaningless rumours suggest Bonucci will 'snub' them to join us. The Toffees are newly cashed up, with owners who must be keen to announce their arrival with some notable captures. It's not hard to imagine that they would throw huge contract offers at the players they want. It'll be tough, though perhaps not impossible, to compete with that. We might hope however that our higher status, in the eye of the modern footballer, would give us the edge but then there are clubs with a higher status than us who are also said to be in for Koulibaly. It'll be time enough to make a judgement once the player either commits to his present club, or makes a move. Until then, eye on the ball everybody and don't fall for the step overs.

Not in my opinion they aren't. Pedro is, I think, clearly better but the Oscar enigma can't be worth further discussion. Three-and-a-half years ago mine may not have been a lone voice calling for him to be replaced, but it was certainly a pretty lonely one. Now it's just a small part of a huge chorus so that song has been sung.

I don't agree with you about the technical ability. I think his limitations in that regard are why he has struggled to earn a start as an attacking player. I do like everything else about the bloke however and fully agree with you that we should take a look at him as a wingback.

Plus ca change. We were never at the top of the pecking order and have probably slipped somewhat lower still recently. We have always had to pick from the pool of players that the bigger beasts don't want. It is therefore a perfectly sound policy for us to try to buy potential; to try to find and acquire the superstar players before the more glamorous clubs recognise their quality. Indeed this is our best plan of action. Our problem has not been the plan, but the way we have executed it. Too many times we have misjudged the quality of the players we target and so end up buying player after player trying to fill the same need because we didn't get it right the first time, or even the second time. As a result of this our team is never quite as good as the money spent on it suggests it should be. We spend huge amounts but end up with ordinary players. This does not mean I am arguing for a change of policy, we won't get the established superstars even if we pay superstar fees. They will still prefer other destinations. I'm calling for a change of attitude, a recognition that very few players are good enough for the club we want to be and so we must be much more critical in our player assessments.

The highest bidder in the sense of the one that makes the most attractive offer to the player himself. If the clause is watertight, and multiple clubs trigger it, then it's Kante, not Leicester City, who will do the choosing.

Either he has a binding release clause, or he doesn't. If he does, it makes no sense for the Chinese side to bid an amount above that figure since that would give them no advantage over a team which bids less. Leicester would still be contractually bound to accept offers from any other club which puts the release figure on the table. Shanghai would then find themselves trying to offset the greater attraction of clubs from other leagues by offering a huge contract to Kante. Since the personal contract is they only way they could win the fight for his signature, it would make far more sense for them to just bid the clause and to lob the additional £15m into Kante's contract offer. This must mean either that there is no binding release clause, or the story's claim about the transfer fee offered sounds like nonsense. One explanation might be that the clause applies only to certain clubs. These things are often reported to apply only to Champion's League clubs, or to top six clubs in certain leagues or to a list of specific clubs. Could be that's what's going here, but I still doubt it

It's quite simple you know, just breathe, relax, and take it in. The club want to win as much as you do. Collectively their decision makers know everything you do about football and almost certainly more. In addition they have experience handling transfer activity, they know the people with whom they are dealing and, crucially, they know the resources they have to play with. You have none of this experience or knowledge yet you rant away. This summer's transfer activity has already yielded a player who will improve us by the way.

Nowhere near as big, or as silly, as your if. How could you possibly imagine that the club has failed to notice the inflation in transfer fees? What on Earth sustains your delusion that you know stuff the club does not?

Kid looks interesting in that youtube video. Has some nice tools but a few of his touches are too flamboyant. Flamboyant isn't a bad thing in itself. To have the ability to do it when required is one sign of a good player, but when it's not required it's a hindrance not a help. Controlling the ball so that it pops up then falls back where you want it looks nice but it takes longer than a simpler touch and can rob you of the split second which makes all the difference. In that vid, there are moments when I'd say he appears to take his time, rather than simply have time because he does everything efficiently. There's a difference. I really like Nya's M.O. but he's going to require some coaching and if he is still playing school football then he should stop. Playing in games where he's a mile better than everyone else is only going to encourage extravagant touches when in fact he needs to develop his understanding of how and when to ration those. I hope the young man will get that coaching but, although I'm a long term supporter of, and apologist for, the academy, they are yet to convince me that they are fully delivering on their first, basic remit. I'm not talking about churning out first team squad members for CFC, but of the function which comes before that. The basic function of any educational establishment is to help the student maximise their potential. I'd like to believe we are achieving that but some of the evidence is doubtful. For example, I'm not persuaded that we have helped Jed, Charly or Ruben make the most of what they have. Footballers, nor their coaches, can do anything about a lack of talent,you can't teach that, but it seems to me that the flaws in the games of those three lads are teachable things. They don't seem to have been taught however. I don't know why Nya and his family decided to move but I hope it is more than just the contract on offer. I hope they have made a good choice, that Nya learns everything he needs to, that he enjoys his football and that he achieves his goals. Welcome son.

I'm the one sulking? And you should maybe edit your last sentence.

Wouldn't pay a penny. Can only hope these stories are nonsense.

For me Pat has more to prove before I could endorse the top notch assessment but I hope Villa happens and that it turns out to be a good step for him.

I've seen nothing in his game which suggests that he can be a Chelsea player, and I can think of no reason, other than financial, why he should want to be a back up here. He should be allowed to move on as soon as it is sensible to do so.

People choose who they support and why they support who they do. I just feel some people would be much happier if they supported Arsenal instead of Chelsea. I know I would be if they did.

Thank you Joao. How would you rank Lucas Lima among those three?

Yes. It's uefa's pathetic attempt to compensate national FAs after they complained that the watering down of the qualification stage for the Euros meant that some countries faced virtually no genuinely competitive football for two years. (As was the case with England for example.) Instead of cancelling the money grabbing silliness of a hopelessly easy qualifying campaign so as to reach a 24-team tournament where it takes 36 matches to eliminate almost nobody from the first round, they just lobbed this manufactured nonsense on top. I hate uefa. Of course we fans have no one to blame but ourselves. If we treated the Mickey-Mouse fixtures with the contempt they deserve, football bodies would have to do better in order to sell tickets and TV contracts. As long as the FA can sell out Wembley and pull in the TV audience for cakewalk fixtures against no-hope opposition however, they will just keep serving that stuff up.

Really want this deal to happen so fingers crossed.

I don't know as much about Batshuyai as you do so I can't be as bullish as you are about his prospects but I know that I like what I see and that what I have seen (90 minutes vs Rennes + youtube) suggests to me he is a level above Patrick Bamford, who, with or without the addition of Batshuyai, would not hold down a place in our squad in my opinion. Let's give chances to people whose skills give them a chance, let's not invest false hopes in players whose skills make further progress a challenge for them. You will of course make your own choice about it, but one thing I think we do owe our players is enough respect to at least try to get their names right.

I was once in a crowd of 8,000 at The Bridge (Bristol Rovers home, 1976) but I don't fully agree with the JCL bit. There is an impact of the hooliganism and racist behaviour we suffered in the dark days which I think people fail to take fully into account. A lot of solid people were disgusted by the behaviour and the atmosphere of threat they encountered when watching Chelsea. Decent fans were driven away from the club by it. David Mellor takes a lot of stick for being one of thoset. He was by no means the no means the only Chelsea fan to wash his/her hands and say I want no part of the violence, the anti-Semitic songs, the monkey-chanting, or the ugly side of skin-head culture. The only times I was threatened with violence at a football match happened at Chelsea and all three times it was Chelsea fans doing the threatening. Thousands, upon thousands of match going supporters were lost to the club at that time. My own dad refused to take me to The Bridge, which is how come my first Chelsea game was actually at Highbury. Here's the thing however, those people stopped showing up, and as a result their kids never acquired the match going habit, but the families remained Chelsea families. The club was still in the blood so, when times improved and the message began to spread that it was safe to get back to watching games in the flesh, those people and/or their now grown up kids began to return. Technically some of them were indeed new fans (not that there is anything wrong with that) but really they were just returning to the fold.

I don't think Dom deserves a chance. I see no reason to hope he'll get one in the coming season. I'd much rather see him try to make a step forward somewhere he'll get minutes.